Page 3 of Axes & Nos

God you are such a pill. We are not fighting my brother. First of all, he’s our Alpha or did you forget that shit, his tiger is bigger and meaner than you. He will swat your ass into next week if you try to fight him. Secondly, he’s our brother, the reason we are still above ground, or did you forget that shit too. And thirdly, because I said so you fucking monster. I respond, shaking my head.

Fine, we won’t fight him. Maybe Liam or Roman will want to fight.

Sure, let's start a fight with our allies, the raccoons. That’s an even better idea than fighting our Alpha and brother. God youare an asshole. All my tiger did in response to my sarcasm was give me a wicked Cheshire Cat grin.

“Good, I’m glad that’s settled.” I state, turning my head to look out the window, watching the town fly by.

“Dax, are you alright? You know you can still talk to me about anything. Just because I’m mated doesn’t mean I’m not here for you.” Chase eyeballs me with concern in his eyes, but I just give him my megawatt leave me the fuck alone smile, and he just shakes his head and continues driving.

If he only knew how often I wanted to fight everyone and everything, he’d probably kick me out of our ambush. He would blame himself, he’d think he didn’t do something right while he was raising me. That’s what Chase did, he took on the full responsibility of everything on himself.

The truth was my tiger was an asshole from day one, and there wasn’t much anyone could do about it, including me. I’d come to terms with my monster inside me years ago, and I fought to keep him under control every damn day.

Chase had become mother, father, and brother to me and Evren when our parents were murdered by a rival ambush. He’d worked two and three jobs to keep a roof over our heads and food in our belly over the years. There was no way in hell I was going to let Chase beat himself up over my monster’s bullshit. Nope, I would keep that little nugget of information to myself and let him start living his life without me as a burden.

“Yes, of course I know that. What the fuck, has this become therapy hour now? Is that what we are doing on the drive into work? Because I’ll be really honest with you brother that sounds like some chick shit right there.” I respond in disgust, rolling my head against the headrest staring at him indignantly. Chase huffs out a laugh as we pull into the lumberyard that we both work at.

“Okay asshole, point taken. It was Alia’s idea, she feels like you’re pulling away from us. She thought maybe you felt like we were pushing you out now that we’re mated.” Ah hell, now I feel like shit, because Alia is fucking amazing. Best thing to ever happen to my brother, not that I’m ever going to tell him that. I’m still positive he will fuck the whole thing up eventually. Also, she is the only person other than Evren that my tiger doesn’t want to fight all the damn time.

Nope, they are girls. Momma said beating up girls was bad. Also, Evren would totally kick our ass, she’s a beast.

Now you want to bring up Ma, really? And Evren is not that tough. Okay so she totally kicked that wolf's ass who thought he was in control, but that doesn’t mean she could kick my ass. When all my tiger does is chuckle in response it makes me wish I could throw something at him.

“Nah man, I don’t feel pushed out. I’m just trying to give y’all some space. Being mated is serious business brother, don’t fuck it up. No one else will put up with your bullshit like Alia does.” I joke, trying to lighten the mood. Chase gives me a sad smile right as he pushes the door open to get out.

“I just don’t want to lose you.” I barely missed the whispered words as he slid out of the cab of the truck. Damn it, I need to do better, he deserves better from me after everything he’s done. Fuck! Scrubbing my hand down my face in frustration I get out of the truck and follow closely behind Chase.

“I’ll do better; I’ll do better for Alia. She deserves to have a good ambush at her back.” I rush out as I catch up to him. And she did, but even more than that Chase deserved for me to have his back. He had sacrificed everything for us, and I would do everything in my power to make his life easier from now on.

“You deserve that too you know, you deserve to feel like you have an ambush that has your back. I know we haven’t everreally had that, moving from place to place so much. But we do now, we have allies, and we have a place to call home, a place to put down roots. You just haven’t figured that out yet, but you will.” Chase declares as he grabs me by the shoulder, pulling me in, slapping me hard twice against my back. I return his manly affection back to him with my own back slaps.

Maybe we shouldn’t fight him today, maybe tomorrow though, yeah tomorrow sounds good.

I just roll my eyes in response to the deviant’s ramblings.

“Alright, alright, none of that mushy shit now. We got manly work to do up on the jobsite. Xander will have our asses if we don’t get moving.” I say as I shove him away from me and make my way toward the building.

“Yeah, fuck that mushy, girly bullshit. We got trees to chop down and manly shit to do.” Chase says as he walks backwards in front of me grabbing his dick.

“How did you ever snag a woman like Alia? I will never know. She is like fifteen levels out of your league.” I declare as Chase chuckles and moves to walk beside me.

“Don’t I fucking know it. Just do me a favor and don’t tell her. I want to keep her in the dark just a little longer, maybe for just another fifty years or so. I hope someday you find a mate that is as perfect for you as Alia is for me. It will change your whole life.” The smile on Chase’s face as he talks about Alia says the man is pussymatized.

“Nope, no, not happening. I’m avoiding all that mate shit until I’m at least forty, maybe never if I can help it. Women are cra-a-a-azy and I do not need that in my life. Having Evren and Alia in the house is enough, I do not need another woman telling me to put the toilet seat down.” I declare even though neither woman has ever demanded I put the toilet seat down. Of course, that could be because our mother taught us to put it down from an early age.

“You and I both know that’s bullshit. Neither one of those girls have asked you to do anything of the sort.” Chase shoves me in the shoulder with a sad laugh before continuing. “I can tell you’re thinking about her, you get this look on your face and I can feel the sadness seep into our bond. You know I think about them every damn day and I hope that they are looking down on us with pride.” He finishes, giving me a sad smile that I return.

My heart aches a little just thinking about all the things she taught me growing up and how much she still had left to teach me. That fucking ambush that murdered them just so they could take over their territory deserved to be eradicated. Our parents deserved to be avenged, and I was planning on being the one to exact that revenge. Chase didn’t realize it but shortly after we bought our place in Broaddus, I started hunting that ambush for that very purpose. He and Evren would be safely tucked away in Texas when it happened, none the wiser for the dark deeds I was going to commit.

“How could they not be proud of us? We’re both extremely good looking, we’re property owners, Evren is in college learning shit knows what, you're mated to a hot little sugar momma lawyer raccoon, and we have the raccoons as allies. We are killing it at life. What more could they have wanted for us?” I pop off, knowing full well our lives would have been completely different had our parents lived.

Chase wouldn’t have had to quit school to take care of us. He’d probably be off traveling the world or some shit by now. I would have gone to college for whatever it was I finally decided to go to college for, and I’d probably be off making millions at it. Evren, well Evren is probably the only one out of the three of us that would probably still be doing exactly what it is she was currently doing. When we were moving from place to place, hiding from other shifters who might have seen us as a threat,and just trying to survive, Chase made a vow that once we were settled Evren would get to go to college.

“I wouldn’t say we’re killing it at life, I mean I am, I have Alia and my life is perfect. You on the other hand well.... No mate, no prospects for a mate, and living at home with your brother and sister. Yep, L-O-S-E-R, loooser.” Chase uses his thumb and finger on his forehead to make an ‘L’, laughing like a maniac. Asshole doesn’t even realize how awesome of a brother he has, yet.

Next week he’d find out that Evren’s next semester of tuition is paid in full. I secretly went in and paid for the next semester without him knowing. He thought I’d blown all my money on the beater truck I bought to fix it up and beer, but he was wrong, wrong, wrong. I gave him a knowing smug smile, ha, the joke was on him, I’d secretly helped him.

“Why are you giving me that creepy ass smile? Stop looking at me like a deranged lunatic, it’s weirding me out. Why do I feel like you are up to something behind my back that I’m going to be pissed off at?” I don’t know why I feel the need to hide my good deed from my brother. Maybe I like acting in the shadows, quietly helping him without him knowing, relieving some of the burden that has been placed on his shoulders. Instead of revealing my awesomeness I give him another smug smile, shrugging my shoulders, before heading inside to clock in